infectious diseases
lborkowski | October 10, 2016Just before the end of its September session, Congress finally did what public health officials had been begging it to do for more than seven months and approved substantial funding for Zika response efforts. The $1.1 billion package fell short of the $1.9 billion President Obama requested back in February – and, according the tally from POLITICO’s Dan Diamond, it came 233 days after Obama’s request and after 23,135 cases of Zika virus were identified in US states and territories.
Unlike an earlier House bill, this funding measure doesn’t prohibit funding from going to Planned Parenthood –…
lborkowski | September 19, 2016Last summer, Nigeria celebrated having gone a year without a case of polio. But then last month, just before meeting the two-year mark, two children in Nigeria were diagnosed with polio paralysis, and a third case has now been detected. All three cases are in Borno state (in northeastern Nigeria) in areas liberated from Boko Haram militants. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports:
Dr. Chima Ohuabunwo, an epidemiologist who has been working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Nigeria for the past five years, says Boko Haram has cut off parts of Borno state, in Nigeria's northeast…
lborkowski | September 7, 2016Since Congress left for recess seven weeks ago without approving funding to address the Zika virus, the Obama administration has declared a public health emergency in Puerto Rico and the Florida Health Department has identified two areas in Miami-Dade County with local transmission of Zika. Now that Congress is returning to the capital, I hope this evidence of Zika’s spread will convince them to provide sufficient funding for all of the following:
Research into vaccines and other healthcare measures to reduce Zika’s impact;
Mosquito control and outreach campaigns to slow Zika’s spread (which…
lborkowski | August 22, 2016A few of the recent pieces I've liked:
Alicia Menendez at Fusion: Pregnant in the time of Zika: How Congress failed women like me
Vann R. Newkirk II in The Atlantic: Can free markets keep people healthy?
Brittney Martin in the Dallas Morning News: Texas' rate of pregnancy-related deaths nearly doubles
Sara Kliff and Ezra Klein at Vox: Public option? Status quo? Collapse? What comes next for Obamacare
Peggy Lowe at NPR/ Harvest Media: Working "The Chain," Slaughterhouse Workers Face Lifelong Injuries
David Dobbs in National Geographic: Why There's New Hope About Ending Blindness
lborkowski | August 1, 2016Last year, researchers identified a gene that confers resistance to "last-resort" antibiotic colistin. They found it in several E. coli isolates in China, and it didn't take long for other researchers around the world to find the same gene, mcr-1, in stored samples once they started looking for it. Researchers have now found mcr-1 in isolates from 32 countries.
The US wasn't among the initial list of countries finding mcr-1, but it didn't take long for that to change. In May, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research scientists reported finding mcr-1 in E. coli cultured from the urine of a…
kkrisberg | July 29, 2016This morning, the Florida Department of Health reported a “high likelihood” of the first localized transmission of Zika virus from mosquito to person in the United States.
Up until now, the more than 1,600 documented Zika cases in the continental U.S. have been related to travel abroad; however, the news from Florida likely means that local mosquitoes are carrying the virus. The news also means that although public health officials have long warned that this day would come, local Zika transmission got here quicker than help from Congress did. Back in February, President Obama requested $1.9…
kkrisberg | July 8, 2016In 2005, the World Health Assembly adopted a revised version of its International Health Regulations, a legally binding treaty among 196 nations to boost global health security and strengthen the world’s capacity to confront serious disease threats such as Ebola and SARS. A decade later, just one-third of countries have the ability to respond to a public health emergency. That’s why Rebecca Katz thinks it’s time to get creative.
“How can we think creatively about incentives for countries to build the required public health capacity under international treaty obligations,” Katz, an associate…
lborkowski | June 20, 2016Hospital-acquired infections are a persistent problem that has become even more worrisome as as antimicrobial resistance has increased. Researchers have been exporing the best ways to reduce hospital-acquired infections, and HHS's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has provided tools and resources for hospitals. Under the Affordable Care Act, hospitals with the worst scores for hospital-acquired conditions can face a reduction in Medicare payments (this provision took effect in fiscal year 2015). In late 2015, AHRQ announced that hosptial-acquired conditions dropped 17% between…
lborkowski | June 1, 2016Back in November, researchers from China reported finding a gene that confers resistance to the last-resort antibiotic colistin in several E. coli isolates, and warned that pan-drug resistant Enterobacteriaceae -- a family of bacteria that includes common foodborne illness culprits E. coli and Salmonella -- "is inevitable and will ultimately become global." As researchers in other countries began examining stored isolates for the gene, MCR-1, they found it. STAT's Helen Branswell reports it "has been found in many European countries, parts of Asia, North Africa, South America, and North…
kkrisberg | May 27, 2016“In my darker hours when I’m sleeping at night, that’s where I go.” Those are words from Eric Blank, senior director for public health systems at the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), talking about the enormous difficulties that public health labs faced in confronting the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic. Now he fears that without emergency federal funds and in the face of new funding cuts, Zika virus will force the nation’s critical public health lab network into that same scenario — or into something even worse.
“(Public health labs) know what they need and when they need it and yet…
lborkowski | May 26, 2016Last week, the World Health Organization stopped short of declaring a yellow fever outbreak centered in Angola to be a public health emergency of international concern, but its emergency advisory committee “emphasized the serious national and international risks posed by urban yellow fever outbreaks.” Angola has reported more than 2,000 suspected cases of the disease and nearly 300 deaths. Cases among travelers from Angola have also been reported in China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya.
Like Zika, yellow fever is a flavivirus spread by Aedes mosquitos. Typical symptoms include…
kkrisberg | May 12, 2016With near constant news on the threat of Zika virus and a quickly growing evidence base detailing the virus’ devastating impact on fetal brain development, you’d think Congress could get its act together to make sure our public health system is fully prepared and equipped to confront the mosquito-borne disease. Sadly, you’d be wrong.
It’s been nearly three months since the White House submitted a request to Congress proposing $1.9 billion in emergency funding to support a full range of activities needed to prepare for, prevent, detect and respond to Zika in the United States. As of today, May…
lborkowski | April 11, 2016As summer approaches, mosquito bites will become common, and the Zika virus could start spreading in parts of the continental US. Although federal, state, and local public health officials are working hard to address this threat, the response from many lawmakers has been disappointing and, in some cases, erected barriers to successful research. Here are a few updates:
CDC News and Resources: On April 1, CDC hosted a Zika Action Plan (ZAP) Summit to help states "prepare for the likelihood of mosquito-borne transmission of the Zika virus in some parts of the continental United States." (…
kkrisberg | March 23, 2016A recent study finds vaccine refusals have, indeed, accelerated the resurgence of whooping cough and measles here in the U.S. The findings are making headlines around the country — and comment sections are filling up with vitriol from anti-vaxxers — but it would feel amiss not to highlight the study on a blog dedicated to public health. But first, let’s remind ourselves of the pain and suffering that preceded vaccines.
Here’s a brief snapshot of what life was like before vaccines and what it’s currently like for people without access to these life-saving medicines:
Whooping cough (pertussis…
kkrisberg | March 18, 2016In another example of the value of investing in public health, a recent study finds that PulseNet, a national foodborne illness outbreak network, prevents about 276,000 illnesses every year, which translates into savings of $507 million in medical costs and lost productivity. That’s a pretty big return on investment for a system that costs just $7.3 million annually to operate.
Created 20 years ago and coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PulseNet includes 83 state and federal laboratories and identifies about 1,750 disease clusters every year. It works by linking…
kkrisberg | March 8, 2016It seems obvious that workers with paid sick leave are more likely to stay home and seek out medical care when they or a family member is ill. But it’s always good to confirm a hunch with some solid data.
In this month’s issue of Health Affairs, researchers used data from the National Health Interview Survey to provide some clarity on the relationship between paid sick leave and health-related behaviors. They found that workers without paid sick leave were three times more likely to forgo medical care than workers who do get paid sick leave. Also, during 2013, both full- and part-time workers…
lborkowski | March 7, 2016As I noted when I first wrote about Zika virus in January, researchers haven't definititively established the link between the virus and microcephaly -- abornormally small brains now seen in thousands of infants whose mothers had (confirmed or suspected) Zika infections during pregnancy. Over the past few weeks, though, new published research has provided more evidence linking Zika virus to poor health outcomes. Here are a few highlights:
Zika and microcephaly: Patricia Brasil of Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Karin Nelson-Saines of UCLA, and their colleagues published their findings in the New…
cmonforton | February 5, 2016Consumers beware! A survey of 500 poultry-processing workers in Arkansas found that 62 percent said they have gone to work when they were sick. Why? Only 9 percent of the workers reported they had access to earned sick leave.
Have the flu? No problem. Come to work anyway and cut those chicken tenders.
Suffering from diarrhea? No worries. Come to work anyway and skin those chicken breasts.
The survey results, based on a representative sample of poultry workers in Arkansas, come from a report released today by the Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center (NAWJC). The study, "Wage and Working…
lborkowski | January 25, 2016A public-health nightmare is unfolding in Brazil, where the mosquito-borne virus Zika has been linked to nearly 4,000 cases of microcephaly – infants born with abnormally small brains and heads. Around 20% of adults with Zika don’t develop symptoms, which include fever, rash, and joint pain, so pregnant women may not even know they were infected. The list of places with active Zika transmisison currently includes 19 countries plus Puerto Rico in the Americas, as well as Samoa and Cape Verde.
While the link between Zika and microcephaly “hasn't been proved definitely,” NPR’s Jason Beaubien…
kkrisberg | January 22, 2016It’s been nearly two decades since the last publication of a nationwide survey on the distribution of blacklegged ticks — the primary transmitters of Lyme disease. That survey, released in 1998, reported the tick in 30 percent of U.S. counties. Today, a new study using similar surveillance methods has found the tick in more than 45 percent of counties.
“These kinds of changes tend to be gradual,” study co-author Rebecca Eisen, a research biologist in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, told me. “But when you see the cumulative change over 20…